Reviews by DovaliHops:

Batch 2. Pours a pitch black color with a small tan head that goes down slowly. Scent is very interesting. Somewhat tannic notes with some dark chocolate and brandy aromas. Sweet vanilla and coconut with dark malt and oak. Subtle cherry and plums...other dark fruits as well. Smells like this one is going to taste pretty sweet...I'm hoping it's not overwhelmingly sweet. Taste is...extremely sweet. Almost coming close to Dark Lord-sweet. I really wish this beer would have tasted just like it smelled. There is some cloying sweetness and soy sauce flavors here, very similar to Dark Lord. A hint of tartness, I'm assuming from the barrel aged Origin in this blend. That slight tartness is the only thing saving this beer, making it seem more complex and balancing out that intense sweetness. Brandy and whiskey flavors, but not very well-balanced. Drinkability is fair, as this one is too sweet. Small doses. Mouthfeel is a tad thin...could use a little more body and creaminess. Overall, not a bad beer at all...in fact, this one will be highly recommended by me. It is unique and delicious in very small doses. Too sweet to drink a pint or 22oz of.

More User Reviews:

This poured a dark cranberry red to almost brown that gave it a purplish hue in the bar. The head was a tightly knit cap of dense brownish foam.

The aroma is tart, a tad sour and full of balsamic funk. A good amount of sour cherry can be had along with some barrel wood.

The flavor is well matched between barrel and sour. The taste is tangy and tart with cherry, vinegar and sour. The barrel manifests itself in a bit of oak and a touch of vanilla for sweetness. This taste profile compliments the sour cherry very well.

The feel is a bit puckering but not over done and adds to the personality of this ale.

This is listed as a strong ale but this certainly could mask for a well done European Flanders, Oud Bruen or any other sour style ale.

Medium body with a light tingle of carbonation on the roof of the mouth.

I really want to like this beer and have had and liked several of the component beers that went into this ale blend, but this is awful. Cloyingly sweet and nauseating. The only beer I've ever had that I've had trouble getting down without gagging. I see from the other reviews that I am in the minority here. Maybe I just got a bad one? The bottling date says March 6, 2012, so maybe it just aged poorly. Batch 001 of Case 999. Whatever the cause, this is pretty terrible.

God knows what the brewery intended with this, but this one is headed for the drain. There's overkill with the barrel aging (and nothing remotely resembling bourbon or rye, more like a sherry or red wine) and the various beer styles just don't merge well. There's no overtly discernible malt or hop character. The overall taste is like wine turning to vinegar. Lousy and forgettable although it may pass for a fair wild or Flanders sour ale.

I asked my beer store guy what was new and different, and he recommended the Funky Jewbelation. He was correct on both. It's certainly new (Batch 001/999 cases, bottled March 2012), and a barrel-aged blend of 6 different beers is certainly a notable effort. I value the creativity; and, echoing what an earlier reviewer stated, the price to value ratio was right on. So, it was really a no-brainer.

Immediately, the question which needed to be answered is the whole greater than the sum of its parts? Personally, I think the answer is "no." That's not to say this isn't a noteworthy effort and a beer worth trying. To that, I'd say "yes" on both counts. I just think it fell short a little bit.

It poured reddish brown with an amazing creamy white head, that quickly dissipated, leaving no lacing.

The smell was very good: caramel, bread, brown sugar, mild bourbon.

The taste and mouthfeel was syrupy and a bit sweet. It was a little cloying, as somehow the flavors weren't quite working together.

Overall, I ended up sitting it down and forgetting about it, as I watched the NCAA Basketball Championship game. But, when I went back to it, it still tasted fine at room temp, which a good strong ale should. So, there you go.

It reminded me mostly of Thomas Hardy's Ale, if your tastes run that way.

The beer pours a brownish color with a tan head. The aroma has a lot of dark fruit, with some toffee and rye whiskey notes mixed in as well. The flavor is quite a bit more complex. I get the same rye notes from the aroma, but there is also a lot of cherry and raisin notes, as well as a lot of character from the barrels. I get some oak, maple and vanilla. There is also a hint of alcohol, but it is more well hidden than in a lot of He'Brew beers. Medium mouthfeel and medium carbonation. Of the three beers drank in the flight, this one was my favorite.

Appearance: Pours a deep dark black with no other color. Moderate amount of bubbles and a decent two fingers of tan head that slowly fades into a thin layer. Lacing is moderate on the glass.

Smell: A pretty interesting smell. The first thing that stands out is a somewhat sour dark cherry presence like a wild ale. Big hints of rye and a little bourbon with vanilla and oak. Dark roasted caramel malts with hints of chocolate and coffee. Also some hints of sugar, dark prunes and figs along with the cherries. Crazy but smells good.

Taste: Tastes just as complex and crazy as it smells. Big dark fruit taste with sour cherries, fig, and prunes. A good amount of rye and some bourbon with hints of vanilla and oak. Dark malts with hints of caramel, chocolate, and a little coffee. Also some brown sugar and molasses. With six different beers things are starting to get a bit jumbled. But this does taste good and is pretty drinkable.

Mouthfeel: Very full bodied with a moderate level of carbonation. Syrupy and chewy but smooth enough so it goes down fairly easy.

Overall: With this many flavors competing you would expect a mess, and to an extent this kind of is. But this is balanced and smooth enough to be an enjoyable beer. The dark fruit flavors are pretty good. This is like a combination of a dark Belgian ale and American Wild ale, and barrel aged.

A dark cola like pour, good head formation, not the greatest in terms of retention or lacing though. The aroma was interesting, reminiscient of Firestone XV, but with some cinnamon and more dark fruit going for it.

Taste, similar again to Firestone XV, had a nice sweetness going for it, a body and consistency that was more barleywine or old ale than it was imperial stout, despite the color. I thought more pomegranite and cinammon (I keep mentioning cinnamon, its not like it was oppressive, or even large, just the right amount). The barrel addition to the flavor profile is mild, but enjoyable. Definitely not getting any charre barrel remnants on this one, leans more towards the sweeter non charred whiskey barrels I would think. Alcohol relatively well disguised. More often than not, dark fruit notes don't sit well with me in a beer like this, they make it all 'quad' like, but thankfully, there's no yeast like quad notes, nor does the beer come off as dark fruit bitter, it just truly lends a small pomegranite like sweetness to the beer. Brown, black, even a little chocolate malt in short order. Some mild citrus notes, similar to the inclusion of double jack or wookie jack in a FFW blend, probably from the Rye IPA they use, here, blended in just the right amount.

I was pretty impressed with this. Sampled with greenkrusty101, who bought this for me about 6 months ago, finally put it down after a growler of Ephraim while watching Season 1 of Trailer Park Boys at the new house.

(Served in a snifter)
Batch 001 bottled 13/6/12
A- This beer pours a jet black body with a tan creamy head that last for a good bit.

S- The earthy wet wood aroma has a soft Flanders red cherry ester note to it with some tartness in the finish.

T- The nice tartness is followed by a red wine character with some caramel and smoke with some walnut hints to it. The sweetness of the finish has bourbon and chocolate malt coming through and lingering for a bit.

M- The medium-full mouthfeel has an alcohol heat and a soft carbonation in the finish.

O- This beer has some good layers and it is interesting how the sour and oak mix well with red wine and Flanders yeast characteristics with softer bourbon notes. It gets a bit too thick and syrupy for me as it warms but it was interesting to drink along the way.

Poured a very dark color with a little bit of a thin, off-white head that dissipated quickly. Scent is sweet malt, slight liquor and a hint of soy sauce. Flavor is incredibly sweet malt, hints of chocolate underneath, some slight raisin and sour notes and a bit of woody and liquor flavors from the barrel aging. Mouthfeel is sticky, with low carbonation. It sips pretty, well, but it is almost too sweet, syrup like in most regards. A nice experiment, but it could do with some lowering of the sweetness and a little more roasted flavors and hop character.

A thick dark brown that's not quite motor oil thick or dark, this beer grows a brown head up to about a finger high. Retention is good, as the head doesn't fade much. Lacing is left in patches to the middle of the glass and a little beyond.
There's lots of complexity in the aroma. A little bit balsamic with caramel sweetness, some rye spiciness and mildly earthy notes, and some dark fruits, it foretells the complexity and depth that will be found in the flavor. Alcohol is well masked.
The flavor opens up even more, and it's such a good mix of a little tart, a little sour, a little sweet, and full of flavor with a great display of skill being shown in the masking of overly alcoholic notes between the high ABV and the whiskey and bourbon barrels. The earthiness and gentle spicy note are just enough underneath, as I imagine it's just what's pulled from those rye whiskey barrels. Delicious.
This is a big-bodied, robust, and smooth beer. A strong ale it is, but it doesn't overwhelm anymore in the feel than in the smell or taste. Even a little crisp, it brings a nice bit of dryness into the finish.
This beer and its overall reviews make me wish more BAs would rather have depth in their beer than just being overpowered by it.

650ml bottle. After having just watched the George Clinton segment on the latest Daily Show, will this be definitely 2 Funky 2 Fail?

This beer pours a very, very dark cola brown colour, bordering on black, but betrayed by the slight highlights on all exposed edges, with two chubby fingers of foamy and creamy mocha head, which leaves some eroding ice shelf lace around the glass as it fritters itself away.

The carbonation is very mild, the body an easy chip shot to fullness of weight, and smooth, but kind of cloyingly so. It finishes still sweet and malty, but with a decent parrying from various edgy sources - wood fibre, booze singe, and fruit sourness.

I'm not getting a lot of 'ryeness' in the admittedly big and complex barrel effects in this offering; despite the proclaimed 3:1 rye/bourbon blend, it's the bourbon that stands out - all caramel, vanilla, and alcohol, to wade into war with the mega fruity malt. Nice of them to invite me to this little conflagration, but a glass of this is about all my palate can take - which is not meant as a reflection on the overall achievement of flavour and hubris jam-packed so well into this bomber.

I thought Vertical Jewbelation was fantastic and thought Genesis 15:15 was World Class. When I saw this was another Barrel product from HeBrew it was a no-brainer pulling the trigger for $12.99.

Funky I found to be a bit too sweet. The dark fruits were past vinous...into straight Welch's Grape juice territory, and I'm not a big fan of grapejuice. The stickiness from the barrel was apparent but slim to no barrel made itself known in the taste. Where's the Rye Whiskey and Bourbon the bottle promises?

Not sure what else to say other than I'm glad I only picked up one of these.